El Paso City Council member Michiel Noe placed an item on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting to talk about the Council's ability to overrule El Paso police.

On Monday, Noe said that although the law states that vehicles driven by uninsured drivers may be towed upon a traffic stop, that's rarely the case.

In Council on Tuesday, it was brought to Noe's attention that the state law does not say officers must cite or tow uninsured drivers, and furthermore, City Council cannot overrule officers' personal judgment and say that they must.

"Police will tell you they just don't have the manpower to sit on the side of the road and wait for a tow truck every time someone doesn't have insurance," Noe said Monday.

After the Council meeting, Noe said he just wants to hear solutions from police about how they can do a better job of enforcing the state law that requires all drivers to maintain financial responsibility, meaning they need to have current liability insurance.

Noe said the fact that there are too many uninsured drivers for police to enforce the law proves his point that the law needs to be enforced.

"We need to tighten it up to where there's more (tows), that was my goal is to get more impounds," Noe said.

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen told the Council and KFOX14 News that police need to have a human element and treat each person with empathy on a case-by-case basis.

"You have to have discretion in place with police officers, because without their discretion you're making people act in robotic ways," Allen said.

Allen said that any officer who only follows the letter of the law is not doing his or her job. Allen also said impounding every vehicle of an uninsured driver would place people in undo hardships, and at times could actually leave them in danger.

Allen told the Council that statewide radio systems and databases are unreliable and would cost an estimated $30 million to $50 million to upgrade.

Here are statistics on citations and impounds that were provided by El Paso police in the City Council meeting.

Year      Citation      Tows
2009      50,081      288 (Nov. and Dec.)
2010      47,550      1,328
2011      48,841       870
2012      22,591       252 (2012 numbers are from Jan. – May)

If you have a story that you feel deserves media attention, contact Ric Dupont at ric.dupont@kfoxtv.com.